Spring Talk: Dr Cathryn Pearce – Salvaging Stories of Shipwreck: The Loss of HMS Brazen, 1800, and the Coastal Communities of Brighton and Newhaven

Spring Talk: Dr Cathryn Pearce

Salvaging Stories of Shipwreck: The Loss of HMS Brazen, 1800, and the Coastal Communities of Brighton and Newhaven

Caught in a winter gale on its maiden voyage for the Royal Navy during the French Revolutionary War, HMS Brazen met an untimely end in January, 1800 on the Sussex cliffs. Only one person survived.  Recovered bodies were interred in mass graves outside the churchyard at St. Michael’s, Newhaven, with a memorial erected in honour of the vessel, officers and crew later that year. The contemporary press and shipwreck anthologies amplified Brazen’s story as a patriotic example of ‘Navy and Nation’. But viewed from the perspective of the people of the coast, a new story unfolds. Using a coastal history approach, this talk will consider the relationship between the inhabitants of Brighton and Newhaven and this naval warship wrecked on their shores, an event still commemorated by the community 225 years later. The talk is the result of research for the upcoming interdisciplinary volume, Shipwrecks in the Intertidal Zone: Archaeological and Historical Approaches.

More about the speaker

Cathryn is a Senior Lecturer in Naval, Maritime and Coastal History at the University of Portsmouth. She publishes on the history of 18^th to mid-19^th Century coastal communities of the Atlantic Archipelago and their experience with shipwrecks. Her most recent work is on Atlantic Ireland’s wrecking cultures. She is a Vice President of the Society for Nautical Research, Councillor for the Navy Records Society, and Trustee and former Chair of the British Commission for Maritime History. Most recently, she has become a Trustee of the Newhaven Historical Society.

More about the event

Date: Tuesday 17 March
Time: 7.30pm
Location: Online via Zoom
Tickets: Free for Members of The Sussex Archaeological Society or £5 for non-members.

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